The Lyrical Landscape of the Mind in a Deeply Personal Collection of Poems

Title: Odessa
Author: Patricia Kirkpatrick
Host: Joanne

The beauty of hearing the artist read her poems in an intimate setting is that we hear the poem in the way it was intended -- the rise and fall of the voice, the pause where it should rest, the emphasis that thrills. How lucky were we to hear Patricia Kirkpatrick read from her stunning new collection in Joanne's rooftop aerie?

Example of Kirkpatrick's note-making system

From the publisher, Milkweed Editions: "A grim prognosis, brain cancer, leaves the speaker in Kirkpatrick's Odessa fighting for her life. The tumor presses against her amygdalae, the 'emotional core of the self,' and central to the process of memory. In poems emotionally charged but void of sentimentality, Kirkpatrick creates from loss a dreamlike reality. Odessa, 'roof of the underworld,' a refuge at once real and imagined, resembles simultaneously the Midwestern prairie and a mythical god-inhabited city. In lines bearing shades of Classical heroism, Kirkpatrick delivers a personal narrative of stunning dimension."

Insights and Opinions

+ The collection has a three-part structure:
• Aura -- a distinctive atmosphere or quality that seems to surround and be generated by a person, thing, or place.
• Parietal -- of or relating to, attached to, or denoting the wall of the body; parietal lobe: middle part of each cerebral hemisphere.
• Cairn -- a mound of rough stones built as a memorial or landmark.
+ The theme of the collection is identity. Who am I?
+ When asked whether she wrote differently after her surgery, Kirkpatrick talked about her process, which involves generating a rich store of material from which she later chooses lines or thoughts to work with. Following surgery, she wrote several poems in a single sitting, shortcutting her usual process. Perhaps due to post-surgical drugs, her inhibitions were gone for the moment, and she wrote complete poems from beginning to end.

Pictures, phrases, definitions,
and thought fragments

+ The word "core" and core as an idea appear prominently and intentionally in these poems. Kirkpatrick uses the mythical Persephone, also called Kore, the queen of the underworld who must forever return to Hades each year before emerging again in the spring -- a "going down" before a return to life.

Oddments and Telling Detail

+ For more, read this interview, in which the poet talks about "finding one's voice through poetic form, the geography of the female body, and crafting myth from Minnesota soil."

The Overlapping Language of Geography and Anatomy

+ This was our first attendance via Skype, with Steve the willing guinea pig. Mostly, it went okay. It was a grand experiment to see if we can do this again for our snowbirds and frequent travelers. We think the answer is yes. Although a tripod would be a good investment.